Organizational Determinants of International News Coverage in Korean Newspapers

Abstract

This article examines the organizational determinants in explaining the nature and structure of international news coverage in Korean daily newspapers. Specifically, similarities and differences in international news coverage among the dailies are investigated. Then their relationships with some organizational antecedents are analysed from a cross-organizational perspective. The results reveal that the international news net of Korean newspapers is shaped spatially according to the organizational discrepancy of national and provincial papers; it also is structured temporally by the difference in time shift of the production cycle between morning and evening papers. In conclusion, organizational resources and editorial policies condition how the spatiotemporal news net for international news production is fabricated, which in turn results in different performances of international news coverage among daily newspapers.

No news from the East? Predicting patterns of coverage of Eastern Europe in selected German newspapers

“…The model further shows a main effect of newspaper type (circulation area): national newspapers generally cover the countries with higher frequency. Assuming that the circulation area of a newspaper is associated with availability of organizational resources for foreign news coverage, this confirms existing results that circulation area reflects an important organizational determinant of news flow (Kim, 2003).…”

Explaining cosmopolitan coverage

“…These factors situated at the country level are complemented by organizational variables such as the circulation of the respective newspaper, the number of correspondents, number of editors of the international section, audience characteristics, ownership and market environment (Johnson, 1997; Kim, 2003; Lacy et al, 1989; Nguyen Vu, 2010). Even though Galtung and Ruge (1965) had already assumed that cultural influences play a role in news selection, research has mostly focused on the structural factors mentioned above, probably because they are easier to measure (such as the value of trade between two countries rather than their cultural ties).…”

Notes from the semi-periphery

“…Studies tend to fall into event-oriented (‘gatekeeper’) or contextual perspectives. The former focus on the characteristics of an event to determine its newsworthiness (Galtung and Ruge, 1965; Rosenblum, 1979), while the latter highlight factors such as the geopolitical position of countries within world-systems (Chang, 1998; Golan, 2008), trade links between countries (Golan and Wanta, 2003; Pietilainen, 2006; Wu, 2007), how media structures influence news flows (Kim, 2003) and so on. Trends in newer communication technologies present some challenges to early hypotheses on news flows (Wall, 2009; Wu, 2007) and some researchers question whether macro predictors of news flow exist at all (Archetti, 2008).…”